Cable television networks are communications networks that are used to transmit cable television signals and/or other information between one or more service providers and a plurality of subscribers, typically over coaxial and/or fiber optic cables. Most conventional cable television networks comprise hybrid fiber-coaxial networks. In these networks, fiber optic cables are typically used to carry signals from the headend facilities of the service provider to various distribution points, while less expensive coaxial cable may be used, for example, to carry the signals into neighborhoods and/or into individual buildings.
Typically, the service provider is a cable television company that may have exclusive rights to offer cable television services in a particular geographic area. Individuals, corporations and other entities may subscribe with the service provider to have cable television services provided to, for example, homes, apartments, hotels, businesses, schools, government facilities and the like, which are referred to as “subscriber premises.” The service provider may broadcast a variety of cable television channels to these subscriber premises over the cable television network. Most cable television service providers also offer other services such as, for example, broadband Internet service and digital telephone service, which services are also provided to the subscribers via the cable television network.
Cable television networks are typically implemented as point-to-multi-point networks in order to deliver “downstream” cable television signals, broadband Internet service and the like from the headend facilities to the subscriber premises. “Upstream” signals from the subscribers to the headend facilities are delivered over the cable television network in the reverse direction. Typically, trunk, district and feeder sections are used to deliver the signals from the headend facilities to individual neighborhoods and the like. So-called “drop sections” are then used to distribute the signals from the feeder sections into the individual neighborhoods.
In the drop sections, tap units are typically connected in series along communications lines (e.g., a coaxial cable) of the cable television network to provide service to individual subscriber premises. The tap units typically have an input port that connects to a first segment of the communications line, an output port that connects to a second segment of the communications line, and one or more RF tap ports. Cables, such as, for example, coaxial cables, may run between each RF tap port of a tap unit and a respective subscriber premise. In this manner, each RF tap port acts as a branch off of the communications line that is used to provide a communications path between the service provider and an individual subscriber premise over the cable television network.
The drop sections of a cable television network may include a variety of different types of equipment, which are generically referred to herein as “RF subscriber drop units.” The different types of RF subscriber drop units may include, for example, RF tap units, RF signal amplifiers, RF splitters and directional couplers, MOCA equipment, inline filters and other signal conditioning equipment.